One of the original hyenas appeared from around the corner to Amira’s right, blood thick and dark on its muzzle. In his case, Amira never hesitated. She raised the pistol and fired three rapid shots that struck the predator in the head and neck, its yelps of pain a chilling reminder that she was taking the life of an animal whose only crime had been to act the way its nature dictated. The animal fell to the dirt, dead.
She ejected the magazine, grabbed a spare from a pouch on her black web belt, inserted the near-empty magazine in its place, and slammed the fresh one into the well of the pistol. She pulled the locked-back slide just enough to release it forward and chamber a fresh round.
Screams reached her ears and were followed immediately by gunfire. I can’t believe I’m about to do this. She moved through the doorway, the pistol up and ready to engage.
Chapter 11
The inside of the barracks was a scene of dimly-lit chaos and carnage. Someone had flipped a switch, but only two overhead lights illuminated the fifty-foot-long space. Several cots had been pushed up against the left side of the building, and a scattering of small tables and chairs marked the space on the right. Furniture aside, terror at the sight of the massive hyena had seized control of the scene, and her mind processed it all in a snapshot.
One rebel lay just to the left of the door, his AK-47 in his lifeless arms as blood poured from his shredded neck. After her first kill, the hyena had turned her attention to two rebels on the left, who tried in their panic to bring their weapons up. She’s going for the ones with weapons first. Somehow, she knows they pose the most danger to her. Smart girl. Their line of sight had been blocked as the hostages scattered across the space in a mad dash towards the back of the building and a lone rebel who seemed frozen to the floor in fear. Two more rebels stood at one of the tables, AK-47s tracking the sprinting hyena. Two on the right. Clear line of sight.
She fired the SIGSAUER twice with perfect accuracy, and both men fell, one striking the table and flipping it, while the other tumbled over a chair. Between her and the hyenas, eleven rebels were dead. Three more to go in here, and then you need to find the stragglers, including the one you chased back into the command center. Amidst the chaos, no one seemed to pay attention to the black-clad killer among their ranks.
The hyena weaved in and out of the fleeing hostages as full-fledged panic spread across the room faster than a California wildfire. Amira moved towards the area of cots, combat-walking in an attempt to line up a clear shot on the two gunmen on that side of the room. No matter what happened, no hostage would die from a bullet fired by her.
The man on the right opened fired with his AK-47, the 7.62mm shots deafening in the enclosed space. Amira heard a cry of pain slightly in front of her and to the left as a hostage, hit by the bullets, fell forward mid-stride. They’re going to kill everyone. You need to stop them.
She halted her movement, placed the sights on the chest of the man who’d fired the AK-47 but held fire as the last hostage from the left side of the room dashed across her view towards the back of the building. The moment he cleared her line of sight, she pulled the trigger smoothly, and her suppressed pistol added its sound to the cacophony inside. The rounds struck him in the chest, and his AK-47 grew silent as he crumpled sideways.
Operating solely by reflex, his partner, recognizing the new threat Amira posed, made the mistake of abandoning his original target. His slow attempt at drawing a bead on her gave the matriarch the precious milliseconds she needed to cover the remaining distance to him. The barrel of the AK-47 he wielded never came close as the hyena slammed into his side and lifted him off his feet like a professional linebacker tackling a pee-wee league player. The ferocity of the attack left Amira awestruck at the pure power of the hyena, but she focused her attention on the last rebel in the back of the room, who’d barely moved since the attack began. He’s in shock, which is good for me. There were too many panicked bodies between her and him for a clean shot.
As terrorized men fled the unfolding death, Amira crouched and jogged forwards, keeping the throng between her and the last rebel. She glanced left and saw the matriarch with her nuzzle buried in her prey’s chest, turning it into a dark, gory mess.
As if sensing her gaze, the pack leader looked up and fixed her intelligent eyes on Amira’s, which sent a chill down her back. Amira reflexively nodded at the beast as if she could primitively communicate with her, and the apex predator dropped her muzzle back into the body of its warm kill.
Within seconds, Amira had closed the distance to the back of the room.
Less than fifteen feet away, the last rebel roused himself from his stupor. His eyes picked up her movement at the last second, and he realized with dawning horror that there were two threats inside the barracks, but only one was moving towards him. He slowly raised the AK-47 in her direction, when an arm appeared from behind him. It snaked its away across his throat, as a second man stepped forward and plunged a large knife into the rebel’s side. He shrieked in pain and instinctively dropped the assault rifle as the blade was forced repeatedly into his side, his back arching with each pierce of the steel. Moments later, his struggling ceased, and
